Automatic toothbrush paste feeder



vMay 14, 1935. H. A. APPEL Er AL AUTOMATIC TOOTHBRUSH PASTE FEEDER Filed Nov. 14, 1933 IMuIIF Jl $55554.555iiifwlfn.5in?,.l fill ATTORNEY- 'named Mey 14, 1935l i 2,000,910.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE AUTOMATIC TOOTHBRUSH PASTE FEEDER Harry A. Appel, New York, and Emile Le Blanc, Woodside, N. Y.

Application November 14, 1li33, Serial No. 697,882 20 Claims. (Cl. 15-137) 'Ihis invention relates to devices for feeding instrumentalities are combined in one andthe materials, and has particular reference to devices same structure, but,v useful devices may be proused for cleaning or similar operations, and parduced embodying less than the whole. ticularly to brushes such as tooth brushes. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art to One object of the invention is to provide a dewhich the invention appertains, that the same 5 vice of the character described having improved may be incorporated in several different construcmeans for feeding a material or paste to the options. The accompanying drawing, therefore, is erating head or bristles of a brush, and prefersubmitted merely as showing the preferred exably to thefree ends of the bristles; improved empliflcation of the invention.

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' l0 means for distributing said material; improved Referring in detail t0 the drawing, l0 denotes 10 means "lor actuating said distributor mechanically a device embodying the invention, and which or manually; improved means to cause a measmay for illustrative purposes be shown as being uring of the material discharged; improved means in the nature 0f a toothbrush having a Cleaning to cause the material to be discharged along a 0r bristle portOn Il, or other Operating means small portion of the path of movement of the Which may be mounted on a support 0r handle l2 15 carrier for the material; improved hydraulic 0f Which the part I3 with the bristles Il may be means for actuating said carrier; an improved termed the head. A pump combination for the purpose set forth; im- The handle I; may have a primary pressure proved means to feed the material into one of Ymeans or pump I4 having Cylinder l5 provided the pumps; improved means to cause one of the with a closure I6 threaded to the handle at II 20 pumps to be lled before the other pump; imat the free end of the handle. Located inthe proved means for acting in conjunction with a cylinder is a piston I8 of rubber, leather, or other refill tube; an improved unitary arrangement of COmDOSitiOn 0r Collapsible material- A tubular the pumps and the handle of the device, rod I9 extends slidably through the closure at Another object of the invention is to provide a the opening 20 thereof, and through the piston 25 device of the type mentioned having relatively i8 Which iS afiXed thereto, so that the passage 2| few and simple parts. and which is inexpensive of Said rodr extends continuously from the forto manufacture and assemble, durable, reliable, Ward face 0f the DiStOrl t0 the rear end 0f the and eillcient in use, and neat and compact in r0d At the latter end, the rOd i9 may have en- 3:) appearance gagement means such as a head 22 provided with 30' Other objects and advantages of the invention a suitably tapered internal thread 23 for connecwi11 become apparent as the specification protion with different sizes of necks 24 of collapsible needs, tubes such as 25. To close the passage 2|, a plug With the aforesaid objects in view, the inven- 26 may be DI'OVided having a knllrled head 27, a tion consists in the novel combinations and arconoidaL DOrtiOn 28 freely receivable in the 35 rangements of parts hereinafter described in their threaded portion 23, and an end projection 29 preferred embodiments, pointed out in the subthat may be threadedly engaged in the adjacent joined claims, and illustrated in the annexed end of the passage 2l. drawing, Whereih like Darts are designated by the The opening of discharge of the cylinder is at 40 same reference characters throughout the several 30, a1; the rear end portion of the cylinder |5l 40 VleWS- and the closure I6 may include a plug portion 3| In the drawmgextending into the cylinder into relative proxim- Figure 1 is a view in longitudinal section of a it y y to said opening 30. The piston I8 may be device embodying the invention with certain elerearwardly concaved so as to tend to embrace 5 l 4r* o d ments pmJected the portion 3l for assuring complete discharge Fig. 2 is a similar view showing a filling position of the device, with a llin'g means in dot dash lines. V

Fig. 3 is an enlarged transverse cross section through the opening 30 of any material in the cylinder. The primary function of the collapsible or concaved arrangement of the piston is to taken on une 3 3 of 1:rig 2 i permit it to collapse rearward when the piston 50 Fig.4isaside view ofaremovabie remi tube. iS driven forward after the Cylinder has been Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view showing lled with material ahead of thevpiston in the the refill tube in the device. fully retracted position of the latter shown in The advantages of the invention as here out- Fig; 2. When the piston is so driven forward, the

lined are best realized when all of its features and material in the cylinder passes to the rear of 55 the piston and may be expelled through the opening 33 upon retraction of the piston.

The handle or support I2 may also include a secondary reciprocatory pump 32 which may extend alongside of the pump I4, and which may have a cylinder 33 communicating with the cylinder I through the opening 33. In the cylinder is a piston element or transverse movable wall 34 to which may be connected a carrier or tubular piston rod 35 slidably fitted in the cylinder 33. To limit projection and retraction of the member 33, the latter may have a longitudinal recess 33 extending in spaced relation to the ends of the member and receiving a pin 31 fixed in a wall of the cylinder 33. It is intended that the member 33 shall have communication with the cylinder 33 only during a small part of the path of movement of the member to discharge material from the cylinder 33 only at a predetermined region and also to afford a measuring of the material. Hence the wall 38 of the cylinder 33 may have a longitudinal recess 33 adapted to communicate with the passage 43 of the member 35, through a lateral opening 4I of said member, when the latter is projected. At its remote forward end the member 35 has a lateral opening 42 for communication with the passage 43 and the head or bristles, and a finger piece 43 may be provided at said end. The general arrangement and construction is that the member 35 shall be movable along a predetermined path for feeding a material to the bristles or for distributing a material thereon along the bristles.

It will be noted that the opening 33 operates as a restriction, being smaller than the area of the cylinder 33, so that cylinder I5 may be filled before the cylinder 33, and that the recess 33 and the opening 4I also operate as a restriction so that the primary pressure in the cylinder 33 is used to actuate the piston 34. The opening portion 42 may be in direct contact with the free ends of the row of bristles, or in slightly A spaced relation thereto as may be preferred.

44 denotes a refill tube and 45 denotes a device having such refill tube removably positioned therein. The rell tube 44 may be cylindrical, and may have a series of lateral openings angularly spaced along la plane perpendicular to the axis of said tube. Just beyond this circular series of openings, the refill tube may be constricted at 41 to provide an annular internal shoulder, and the tube may have a portion 43 flared therefrom toward the open end 43 of the tube. The refill tube may contain any desired material to be supplied to the bristles and may be suitably enclosed or wrapped for sale in any suitable manner not shown, to reliably retain the contents thereof.

In the device 45, the refill tube is shown assembled in the device I3. The rell tube is snugly removably received in the cylinder I5, with its closed end 53 in abutment with the corresponding end of the cylinder, and one or more of the openings 43 in close communication with the opening 33. To prevent any material from entering between the refill tube and the internal surface of the cylinder I5, the flared portion 43 receives the tapered plug 3| so that as the closure I 3 is screwed home, said plug acts expansive- 1y on the flared portion, tightly closing the refill tube and pressing the flared portion into intimate contact with the wall of the cylinder I5. The piston I3 may have been readily inserted into the refill tube despite the smaller internal diameter thereof and the shoulder 41, by reason of the resilience or collapsibility of the piston. The arrangement of the piston I3 is such that it may be used to engage the shoulder portion 41 to retract and withdraw the refill tube after the closure I3 is disconnected. In the position of maximum retraction of the piston, the same may wholly or partially pass the openings 43, so that the latter may communicate with the interior of the refill tube ahead of the piston, and in any event, the entire contents of the refill tube can be ejected.

The manner of using the invention will now be described. With the device I3 in the position shown in Fig. 2, both pistons I3 and 34 being fully retracted, the closure 23 is removed and the collapsible tube 25 connected to the tubular piston rod I3. Then the collapsible tube is compressed to discharge the contents thereof through the piston rod I3 into the cylinder I5 in advance of the piston head I3. Meantime, a portion of the material so discharged flows from the cylinder I5 through the opening 33 into the cylinder 33 and causes the piston 34 and hence the tubular carrier 35 to be slowly advanced, but the restriction of the opening 33 prevents any substantial advance until the cylinder I5 is full, when the full pressure exerted by the collapsible tube 25 is available for causing the piston 34 to rapidly advance. During this time the passage 43 is out of communication with the cylinder 33 so that the full pressure acts on the piston 34. Hence when the member 35 is substantially advanced, the operator knows that the cylinder 33 is practically full and thus the member 35 operates as an indicator for this purpose. The collapsible tube 25 may now be disconnected and the closure 23 replaced. Now the piston is forced forward by means of the element I3, causing the materialvin the cylinder to collapse the piston I3 and to flow past the same so that all the material is now at the rear side of the piston I3. This operation, however, will not create pressure on the material in the cylinder 33, because as soon as the piston passes the opening 33, the pressure in cylinder I5 is wholly in advance of said opening.

If now it be desired to deposit material on the bristles II, the piston I3 is retracted by exerting a pull on the member I3, forcing additional material through the opening 33 into the cylinder 33 to actuate piston 34 for further projecting the carrier 35. When the opening 4I of the latter comes into communication with the recess 33, material may ow from the cylinder 33 into the passage 43, but such flow may be substantially restricted by the smallness in size of the opening 4I or of the recess 33 or both, so that all available pressure acts on the piston 34 to cause the device to assume the position shown in Fig. 1. Now, further projection being prevented by the stop pin 31, the pressure causes the material to flow through 33, 4I, and 43 and out through the open-v ing 42 to deposit a desired quantity of material on the farther end of the row of bristles 42. If now the piston I3 is retracted by exerting a push on the member I3, a suction is transmitted to the piston'34 causing retraction thereof and hence of the carrier 35. But this suction is insufficient to withdraw back into the carrier passage 40 the material deposited on the bristles, owing to the viscosity of the material and the resistance to flow at 33, 4I and 43. The movement of retraction of the carrier will, however, cause the same to spread or distribute along the bristles the material discharged thereon.

By this invention it is possible to discharge a measured or predetermined quantity of material along the bristles without any wastage. Thus,

instead of retractlng the piston I3, as aforesaid, the finger piece 43 may be actuated to press the piston 34 leftward, whereby material in the cylinder 33 willbe expressed through the openings 33 and 4I to be discharged at 42 on the bristles in direct proportion to the movement of the carrier. Such expression can be controlled by the sizes of the various passages and openings and will occur until the opening 4| passes out of communication with the recess 39. Ihe recess 39 may be substantially equal in length with the row of bristles II, and hence the device automatically determines not only the quantity of material discharged but also the path over which the discharge shall occur. The pump unit I4 and passage 30 may oiler the requisite resistance to permit this'operation bymanual actuation of the member 35. Of course, as soon as opening 4I passes the recess 39, further actuation of the carrier 3i will not cause any discharge.

For using a refill tube, the closure I8 is removed and the rell tube inserted into the cylinder I5, whereupon the piston I8 is inserted into the refill tube and the unitary closure I3 applied as hereinbefore described. The manner of supplying to the bristles II material from the refill tube may now be the same as above described.`

The refill tube can be recharged from a collapsible tube, but if it is to be replaced, the closure I 6 is disconnected and the member I9 pulled outward whereupon the piston I8 engages the shoulder 41 for withdrawing the rell tube, after which the piston can be sprung out of the refill tube, and another full refill tube inserted into the cylinder I5 as set forth.

It will be apparent that all kinds of liquids, viscous fluids, plastic materials and even powdered solids may be used in the device, and that the invention may be employed with cleaning, polishing, painting, and generally, with al1 d..- vices where a material ls to be supplied at a desired point or path. 'I'he device can be constructed of metal, hard or soft, composition materials. and the like as may be preferred.

It will be appreciated that various changes and modications may be made in the device as shown in the drawing, and that the same is submitted in an illustrative and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the invention being defined in the following claims.

We claim:

1. A brush having a handle, a head thereon having cleaning means, said handle having means including a chamber, and a member having piston coaction with said means for expression of material from the chamber. said member having communication with the chamber along a limited portion of the path of the member to cause a limited quantity of the material to be expressed from the chamber, and means coacting with said member and being movable along the cleaning means to supply thereto the material expressed from said chamber.

2. In combination with a brush having a row of bristles or the like, of a slidable feed tube member mounted on the brush for movement along Ythe free ends of the row of bristles, and pump means for causing said member to continuously feed to the bristles in course of a part of said movement, a working material of the pump means.

3. In a brush,` the combinaticn with a owice having a cleaning portion provided with a Working face, of a member movable along the working face and adapted to apply a cleaning material thereto, and hydraulic means having said material as a working fluid and actuating said member and supplying said material thereto.

4. In a brush, the combination withv a device having a cleaning portion provided with a working face, of a material supplying member for said working face movable therealong in spaced relation thereto, and cylinder means coasting with said device and-said member so as to guide the member therein for movement along a fixed path,

said member and said means having pump coaction with each other during a part of the movement of the member so as to cause the material to be supplied coincident with said movement.

5.v In a brush having a head, a reciprocatory pump having a working fluid, and means including a slidable feed tubeactuated by said fluid and having means for discharging said fluid on said head.

6. In a brush having a head, a reciprocatory pump having a working fluid, and means includ-A ing a slidable feed tube actuated by said fluid, said tube having means carried by the tube for discharging said fluid' to said head, during a movement of the tube less than the path of travel of the tube.`

7. In a brush, the combination with a device having a cleaning portion, of means for supplying material to said portion, including a pump having a working fluid, means having a cylinder and a slidable feed tube therein actuated by the working fluid of the pump, said feed tube having a member movable therewith for movement along said cleaning portion, and said member having means for supplying a part of said working fluid to said cleaning portion.

8. In a brush having bristles or the like, the combination with a handle having a cylinder, a piston in the cylinder, a tube connected to the piston for movement therewith, said tube being fitted in and projecting from said cylinder and having an opening within the cylinder, the latter having a recess in the wall thereof with which said opening is communicable in one position of the tube and said opening being closed by the cylinder Wall in another position of the tube, and

the projecting portion of the tube being movable along the bristles and having an opening, whereby material in said cylinder can be discharged on said bristles.

9. In a brush having bristles or the like, the combination of a handle having a cylinder, a piston in the cylinder, a rod for actuating the pis'- ton, said rod being tubular and the piston having a passage therethrough in communication with the passage of the tubular rod, said piston being collapsible, means for feeding a material into the cylinder through said tubular rod, and means for causing said material to be supplied from the cylinder to the bristles.

10. In a brush having bristles or the like, the combination of a handle having a reciprocatory pump, the latter including a tubular piston rod and a piston having a passage therethrough in communication with the pist-on rod, means for detachably connecting to the rod a source of a material to be supplied to the pump, detachable means for closing said rod, and means for supplying said material from the pump to the bristles.

11. In a brush having bristles or the like, a handle having a cylinder, a removable refill tube in the cylinder, said refill tube having a projection, a piston in the cylinder having a tlexible piston head, means whereby the piston head is releasably engageable with the projection to withdraw the same from the cylinder, and means to cause material discharged from the tube to be supplied to the bristles.

12. In a brush having bristles or the like, the combination of a handle having a cylinder, a removable reilll tube in the cylinder, a piston in said tube, said refill tube having an open end and a lateral opening spaced from said open end, a removable closure means for the cylinder and the rell tube, said closure means having a plug portion engageable within said tube up to said opening, said piston being retractible into abutment with the plug portion for exposing said opening ahead of the piston, and means communicating lwith said opening for feeding to said bristles material discharged from said tube.

13. In a brush having bristles or the like, a pressure chamber, a slidable feed tube in the chamber and having restricted communication therewith whereby material can be supplied to said chamber before entering the feed tube to a substantial degree. and means whereby said feed tube is moved by the pressure in the chamber to feed material from said chamber to the bristles.

14. In a brush having a handle and bristles or the like at one end thereof, a pair of cylinders in the handle, a communicating passage between the cylinders at the opposite end of the handle, one of the cylinders having a. piston and rod therefor movable to extend beyond said opposite end of the handle, and a slidable feed tube in the other cylinder movable to extend along said bristles for supplying material thereto.

15. In a brush having bristles or the like, a reciprocatory pump, means including a cylinder and a slidable feed tube therein, said cylinder being in communication with and actuated by the pumps, said pumps and means having a common working material, the feed tube being movable for supplying the material to the bristles. and said feed tube having valve closure coaction with the cylinder at a portion of the path of movement of the feed tube and having communication with the cylinder during another portion of the path of movement of said feed tube, so'that the feed tube is movable before material is supplied thereby to the bristles and so that the feed tube is adapted to supply a predetermined quantity of material to the bristles before the closure means becomes effective.

16. In a brush having a plurality of chambers movable relatively Ato each other so as to have a 'first and second point of intercommunication,

and being out of communication between said points, means to cause a ow of material from one chamber to the other at said points of communication, a cleaning means, the chamber receiving material having discharge means for the material, and said chamber being movable so that the discharge means is at the cleaning means when the chambers are in communication at the when the chambers are in communication at the second point, and means for closing the discharge means in the position thereof remote from the cleaning means 17. In a brush having a plurality of chambers movable relatively to each other so as to have a first and a second point of intel-communication. and being out of communication between said points, means to cause a flow of material from one chamber to the other at said points of communication, a cleaning means, the chamber receiving material having discharge means for the material, and said chamber being movable so that the discharge means is at the cleaning means when the chambers are in communication at the first point, and remote from the cleaning meansl ment of the chambers to cause the discharge' means to feed material coincident with said relative movement, and means foi` closing the discharge means in the position thereof remote from the cleaning means.

18. A brush having a cleaning head, a handle therefor having a cylinder, said-cylinder being open at one end, a rell tube removably inserted into the cylinder, said refill tube having an open end at the open end of the cylinder,` the opposite end of the refill tube being closed, a common closure for the open ends of the refill tube and cylinder, the latter and the refill tube having registering lateral openings in communication with the cleaning head, and means to cause expulsion of material in the refill tube through said lateral openings to the cleaning head, the lateral openings in the refill tube including an annular series of openings, as set forth.

19. A brush having a cleaning head, a handle therefor having a cylinder, a refill tube removably iitted in the cylinder, said handle having a lateral outlet and a passage communicating said outlet with the brush head, the refill tube having an annular series of openings for register of an opening with said outlet in different positions of the reilll tube, and means to cause the material in the refill tube to be fed through an opening, the outlet and passage to the cleaning head.

20. A brush having a head, carrier means for the head having a feeding means including a cylinder, a piston in the cylinder, a rod connected to the piston, said rod having a longitudinal passage therethrough and through the piston so that a material can be fed through said rod to the cylinder at aside of the piston, the piston being elastically collapsible so that the material can be by passed to the opposite side of the piston with the latter being the working face, and means including a passage connected to the cylinder for feeding to the head material expressed from the cylinder by the working face of the piston.

HARRY A. APPEL. EMILE LE BLANC.

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